Choosing headphones is a personal experience. With the exception of your mouse and keyboard, headphones are a peripheral you will physically touch, or wear, more than any other part of your gaming PC. But in this age of wireless being king, has it really improved? Is it ready for prime time online gaming? Spoiler alert: this ain’t your father’s Bluetooth headset.

SteelSeries Arctis Pro Wireless Review

Let’s face it, everyone wants wireless.

No one likes being tethered by wires that get tangled, get caught on things, and yank the headphones right off your head, which then fall onto your desk and knock your beer over into your keyboard, etc.

However, as anyone who has used Bluetooth before knows, that tech is not without its own major limitations.

For me personally, I am willing to live with the limitations that are often synonymous with using wireless, which include lower audio fidelity, battery life, interference, poor range, connection issues, and so on.

For some, these limitations are unforgivable, so back to wires they go, and who can really blame them?

Headphones have really become a necessity for gaming, superseded only by the need for a microphone. Gaming has really shifted to be more online, multiplayer centric. This need for headphones raises other issues, though, such as wireless vs wired, and integrated mic vs separate mic.

Depending on your school of thought, you may be staunchly on one side, unwilling to compromise even a little. The SteelSeries Arctis Pro Wireless is taking a step towards bridging the chasm between the convenience of wireless, whilst offering ultra-low latency, interference-free, good range and battery life that has been the bane of using wireless for intense, competitive online gaming.

The Arctis Pro themselves have a very sleek and simple aesthetic, which seems to be rare nowadays in the gaming community – thankfully, there is no RBG to be found on the SteelSeries Arctis Pro Wireless!

The Pro Wireless has a woven ski goggle fabric suspension-style headband. The entire headband chassis is made from lightweight steel and aluminum alloy components.

Control array: On the left earcup, we find towards the bottom a mic mute push button, a rotary volume knob, mobile audio cable jack, 3.5mm headphone jack, and a micro-USB charging port. On the right we find the power button, and a button to independently control Bluetooth function.

The earcups are a very thick, plush material that SteelSeries states is “athletics-inspired Airweave fabric”.

The retractable boom is on the left, which SteelSeries claims is “widely recognized as the best mic in gaming” a ClearCast bi directional mic, which is also Discord Certified. Included in the accessories is a foam filter that slips on over the mic if you are so inclined. In case you were wondering what Discord Certification consists of, here is a link to explain it.

The transmitter base station is just over 4 inches square, and about 1.25 inches tall, about the size of an Apple TV or Roku device, and has a black and white OLED display (.75 inches x 1.25 inches) that blends seamlessly into the front bezel of the device.

There is a large rotary knob on the right side, and a small button just to the left of that, both for interacting with the device.

On the back of the transmitter base station we find from left to right a 3.5mm line in and line out, an optional DC power input, a mini-USB input, followed by two optical cable ports, one for in and one for out.

On the right hand side of the transmitter base station, we find a rectangular slot, which is used to charge the spare battery.

In the included accessory kit, we find a myriad of cable choices, as well as the spare battery and foam cover for the mic boom, for those of us that need to “say it, don’t spray it”.